The start of work to build the UK's first container port for 25 years has been announced by the site's owners.
Dubai's DP World had put the future of London Gateway under review after a slump in container traffic raised questions about the viability of the £1.5bn deep-sea port and logistics park near Thurrock in Essex.
DP World is part of Dubai World,
which faces a debt restructuring, although the highly profitable port operator insists it remains financially sound . The company said on Monday it had acquired 1,000 acres and other interests in the project from Royal Dutch Shell and now planned to start some construction work.
The announcement came ahead of a visit to the site yesterday by Gordon Brown, prime minister, and Lord Mandelson, business secretary, for a ceremony to mark the start of work.
Lord Mandelson said the project would create 36,000 jobs. "Developing our infrastructure will underpin the steps the government is already taking to stimulate the economy, and will lay the foundations for further advances in the future," he said.
The project is set to transform how product distribution works in much of the UK because it will allow goods to be landed far nearer than before to the main population centres of London and the south-east. The two busiest container ports are Felixstowe, in Suffolk, and Southampton.
The site includes a logistics park for distributors to sort goods on arrival. Until now, almost all such distribution centres have been in a small area near Rugby and Northampton.
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